Nappyneedz

Something that comes up time and time again, is which cloth nappy is the best cloth nappy? Parents want help choosing the right cloth nappy for them and their baby, but there are so many different ideas and opinions out there that it can get really complicated. So, how do you stop yourself going crazy with all of those different options and opinions? How do you know if you are really choosing the right cloth nappy for you? Speaking to friends If you have friends who already have children and they’ve used cloth nappies, ask them for tips and advice. They may even loan you a few styles to try. Always bare in mind though, that what one person really likes, another might not. Once you have a baby, you’ll find that lots of people have lots of advice to share with you, from other parents to family members, and even random old women in supermarkets who will come and share their expertise on whether your little one should be out without socks or not. (Which is really irrelevant when...

WARNING, before you read any further, this blog post is about cloth menstrual pads, which means I’m going to be talking about (loud stage whisper) periods and things. So, if you are a bit squeamish, or don’t want to read about things like that, go no further. Of course if you’re not bothered, let’s dive right in, have you thought about trying cloth pads? Washable cloth pads? I know that at the thought of trying cloth pads is just a bit much for lots of people, it’s all just a bit grim. The idea of washing sanitary pads, with all of that icky stuff on it…. yuck! But actually it’s not all that bad. It is. after all, your own icky stuff and I’m not suggesting that you wash them by hand. You can help things along by soaking them in a small tub of salt water (ok, the water’s going to look a bit like something from a horror movie when you’ve finished, but you can just rinse that away) and the washing machine will clear up the pads in...

Parents are often concerned about using cloth nappies in hot weather; on very hot days, the extra layers in a cloth nappy seem to be very warm and parents are worried that their baby will over heat. Cloth nappies particularly those like Ecobots are actually great in hot weather, as they are so breathable. Ecobots in summer Ecobots are a great choice in the summer months, they are breathable and stop your little one from getting too hot. The nappies themselves are cotton, which like most natural fabrics, is breathable and does not over heat the skin. The covers wrap around the outer of the nappy and unlike some other cloth nappies that are all made of polyester, and enclose the whole area, they allow air to circulate and help stop your little one from getting too hot. All cloth nappies are better in hot weather than disposables. All though disposables might look thinner, would you prefer to have your bottom wrapped in a piece of cotton with a cover over it, or a plastic bag? That’s...

Sometimes people are put off the idea of using cloth nappies because they are worried about the smell. You might be worried that having dirty nappies sitting ready to wash might be a bit whiffy, or you might have heard that cloth nappies smell bad. Really though, there’s no need to kick up a stink about cloth nappies, and often you might even find that they are less smell than some other options. Biohazard Kicking up a stink I suppose that in some ways there’s not getting away from it, cloth nappies are designed to catch something that can be pretty stinky, but there’s no need to be kicking up a stink about it. There’s no real reason that cloth nappies should smell any worse than disposable nappies. With cloth nappies, you do have a couple of advantages over disposables when it comes to smells. First of all, you can actually wash the nappies and get rid of the smells, they’re not sitting around in your bin until the end of the week; believe me, a bin full o...

Continuing with our look at cloth nappy terms, today I’m going to talk about one size nappies. There are actually lots of different things that these cloth nappies are called. We’ll take a look at some of the different names for them and see if those different names actually mean that the nappy is different in some way. One size nappies Cloth nappies usually come in two different types; sized nappies, which mean that you will need to buy new sizes as your baby grows and one size nappies, that come in just one size. As a general rule one size nappies tend to have some method to adjust them to fit a range of different sizes of babies, although it is possible that a one size nappy may just come in one size and fit just one size. There is, just to confuse things slightly, a third type of nappy that is sized, but then has adjustments to make it fit a range of sizes within that size range. Birth to potty nappies When I first started using cloth nappies, most of the one size nappie...

There are lots of terms that you might come across when looking at cloth nappies that you might find confusing. I’m going to be looking at some of these terms in a series of blogs, starting this week with workhorse cloth nappies. What are workhorse cloth nappies? Workhorse cloth nappies are simply your day to day, go to nappies that work well but aren’t particularly fancy. If you have a pile of different types of cloth nappies, your workhorse cloth nappies are those which you tend to reach for first, and that are often quite ordinary looking. Most people tend to fill most of their cloth nappy stash with workhorse cloth nappies, something reliable that you can use every day. Most of the nappies that we sell here at Nappyneedz would count as workhorse cloth nappies, our dinky pocket nappy , and ecobots prefolds would certainly fall into this category. A workhorse cloth nappy doesn’t have to be boring or ugly, but as a rule they tend not to have lots of embroidery or pic...

One of the questions that comes up again and again is about cloth nappies and the environment. How much better are they for the environment? Are disposable alternatives really that much worse? Does it matter what kind of nappies you use? There have been many, many studies done on this subject, one in particular suggested that there was little difference between the two types of nappies in terms of environmental impact. So, what is the truth? Are cloth nappies really the better choice? Cloth nappies and the environment Before we look at cloth nappies and the environment in more detail, it is worth mentioning that of course everything we do has an impact on the environment. It’s easy to convince ourselves that going for the ‘green’ option means that there isn’t an environmental impact. Making cloth nappies in the first place, of course uses resources, then there is the washing and drying of them, all of which is going to have an effect. We usually use chemicals, wa...